An intensive care unit (ICU) admission is a stressful event for the patient and the patient’s family. Several studies demonstrated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder in family members of patients admitted to ICU. Some studies recognize that the open visitation policy (OVP) is related to a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression for the patient and an improvement in family satisfaction. However, some issues have been presented as barriers for the adoption of that strategy. This study was designed to evaluate perceptions of physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists (RTs) of an OVP and to quantify visiting times in a Brazilian private intensive care unit (ICU).
Methods
This observational and descriptive study was performed in the medical-surgical (22 beds) and neurologic ICU (8 beds) of Sírio-Libanês Hospital (HSL), São Paulo, Brazil. All physicians, nurses, and RTs from ICU were invited to participate in the study. A questionnaire was applied to all ICU workers who accepted to participate in the study. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions about the visiting policy. During five consecutive days, we evaluated the time that the visitors stayed in the patient room, as well as the type of visitor.
Results
A total of 106 ICU workers participated in this study (42 physicians, 39 nurses, and 25 RTs). Only three of the questions exposed a negative perception of the visiting policy: 53.3% of the participants do not think that the OVP consistently increases family satisfaction with patient’s care; 59.4% of ICU workers think that the OVP impairs the organization of the patient’s care; 72.7% of participants believe that their work suffers more interruptions because of the OVP. The median visiting time per day was 11.5 hours.
Conclusions
According to physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists, the greatest impact of OVP is the benefit to the patients rather than to the family or to the staff. Furthermore, they feel that they need communication training to better interact with family members who are present in the ICU 24 hours per day.
Keywords: Intensive care unit, Family, Visitation policy, Family centered care, Patient centered care
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Background
An intensive care unit (ICU) admission is a stressful event for the patient and the patient’s family. Several studies demonstrated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder in family members of patients admitted to ICU [1-3]. In 1979, Molter published the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory [4]. Since then, other studies have focused on attendance to those needs [4-6]. An open visiting policy (OVP) in an ICU meets at least one of these needs: to be with the patient frequently. In the past several years, the search for improvement in patient care in a holistic way became evident. Patient-centered and family-centered care has been increasingly encouraged to improve the quality of care and the satisfaction of patients and their families. One of these proposals is to ensure an OVP to relatives of patients admitted to ICU [7,8].
In general, the time period of an ICU visit is described as restrictive or open/liberal. A restrictive policy allows family to visit during certain periods of the day and restricts the number of visitors per period. An OVP allows access to family at all times (24 hours), with or without restriction on the number of family members during any given period. An OVP is very common in the pediatric ICU setting but is still uncommon in an adult ICU [7,9-12].
Several studies developed in Europe and North America have demonstrated that most ICUs have a restrictive visiting policy [11-17]. Some studies recognize that the OVP is related to a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression for the patient and an improvement in family satisfaction [18]. Fumagalli et al. reported a reduction in cardiovascular complications with an OVP [19]. However, some issues have been presented as barriers for the adoption of that strategy [9,10,20-22]. An OVP could cause an increase in the workload for ICU workers and also create some delay in the performance of duties [10,22]. Nurses tend to be more skeptical about an OVP, despite recognition of the possible benefits to the patient [22].
In Brazil, there is no formal recommendation about the visiting policy in an ICU, and each institution is allowed to decide its own individual visitation strategy. Our institution adopted a 24-hour visitation policy 5 years ago (November 2008).
The objective of this study was to evaluate the perception of physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists (RTs) regarding an OVP in one private ICU with 5 years of experience. Another objective of this study was to evaluate the length of stay of visitors in a patient’s room and the usual type of visitor.
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Methods
Settings
This study was performed in the medical-surgical and neurologic ICU of Sírio-Libanês Hospital (HSL), a 380-bed tertiary-care hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. This ICU has 38 private rooms, which are divided into four different wings. Wings one and two are responsible for medical-surgical patients, wing three for cardiological patients, and wing four for neurological patients. A comfortable waiting room with several amenities is available for visitors. During the admission, the family receives an information leaflet that gives a general explanation about the ICU. In the past 5 years, we have adopted an OVP. Family members are told that they can visit the patient at any time during the day or night, and they also are allowed to sleep in the patient’s room (wing one in a bed and wings two through four in a rocking chair). During two periods, from 3 to 5 pm and 9 to 10 pm, up to two visitors are allowed in the patient room at the same time. During all other times, only one visitor is allowed in the room, but there are no restrictions about changing visitors. During invasive procedures (intubation, catheterization), family members are asked to stay out of the room. A large number of visitors are allowed if the patient is dying, especially during serious conflict cases. There is no regular hour for family conference. Only the patient’s representative can request information about the patient’s condition at any time, without restriction. Other relatives or visitors can ask for minor information at any time with the authorization of the patient’s representative.
The ICU has an open model of organization. A physician, who is not necessarily an intensive care specialist, is responsible for the patient, but there are many shared decisions with the ICU team about the patient’s care. The ICU team (wings one, two, and four) is made up of 38 intensive care physicians and 7 residents, 39 nurses, and 27 RTs. In addition, there are nurse assistants (NA) who are responsible for helping nurses with some patient care, such as bathing, eating, and drug administration. Intensive care physicians, nurses, and RTs are present in the ICU 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. During the day period, the shifts are 6 hours each, and during the night period, shifts are 12 hours each. The physician/patient ratio is 1:5 during the day and 1:10 at night; the nurse/patient ratio is 1:4 during the day and night; the RT/patient ratio is 1:5 during the day and night; the NA/patient ratio is 1:2 during the day and night. Family members or elderly assistants do not provide any part of the patient care.
Study type
Observational and descriptive.
Study design
All physicians, nurses, and RTs from the ICU (wings one, two, and four) were invited to participate in the study. ICU workers with less than 6 months employment in the institution were excluded. ICU workers from wing three were not included in this study because that wing belongs to another department. For all ICU workers who agreed to participate in the study, a questionnaire was filled out. The questionnaire (Additional file 1) contains data about demographic characteristics of ICU workers (age, gender, profession, length of experience in ICU, length of work in HSL), 20 questions relating to perceptions of an OVP, and two questions relating to communication training. Questions related to the impact of an OVP were written based on models used by Marco [21] and Garrouste-Orgeas [18]. All authors contributed to the adaptation of the questionnaire and tested the questions for this study. Questions related to ICU workers’ perceptions about an OVP presented four possible answers: never, occasionally, frequently, and always. The other three questions (numbers 20, 21, and 22) presented three possible answers: yes, no, or I don’t know. All ICU workers who agreed to participate in this study returned the questionnaire in a sealed envelope.
During five consecutive days, February 25 to March 1, 2013, we collected data about patients that were in the ICU or were admitted during in this period. For each patient, the following information was collected: age, gender, number of days in ICU before data collection, length of stay in ICU during data collection, SAPS3, and outcome. We also evaluated the time that the visitor stayed in the patient’s room, as well as the type of visitor (family or elderly assistance). This information was collected through the visits control that occurs in the ICU’s reception area. Each visitor is given a badge that lets us know the time of entry and time of exit from of the ICU. We did not verify the total number of visitors during the two time periods when it is allowed up to two visitors at the same time in the patient’s room.
This study was approved by the local ethics committee (nº HSL 2012/30).
Statistical analysis
Collected data were analyzed by statistical software SPSS 13.0 (SPSS IBM, USA). Descriptive statistics for nominal data were expressed in proportions. Continuous variables normally distributed were described as mean and standard deviation. Median and interquartile range (IQR) w